OG beat Team Secret to win Frankfurt Major

23 November 2015

By Martin Coetsee

This weekend saw a tremendous upset in the finals of the first leg of Valve’s four-part Dota Major Championships, which took place in Frankfurt, Germany. It’s been an amazing road for OG (formerly known as (monkey) Business) and they emerged triumphant against Team Secret to lift the coveted Eaglesong trophy and etch their names in Majors history.

It didn’t start as brightly as it ended for OG, having lost two of their three group stage matches, which forced a fight for survival in the main event’s lower bracket. And fight for survival is exactly what OG did, with Fly in control of drafting and the experience of the 8k MMR-touting Miracle to handle the mid lane, OG stood out and produced high-quality Dota. The lane dominance, the rotations and the initiations were all so precise that it made you wonder how OG landed in the lower bracket to begin with.

On a side note, I’ve previously mentioned that Alliance was one of the teams to look out for in the finals of this Major and that they would be the underdog should we see one rise up. Unfortunately they lacked a certain aggression and were too passive in their approach to engagements. This is the area in which OG shined; they were always ready to engage the fight, whether it was to defend a tower, control the Rosh pit or to secure the first bounty rune for Miracle’s Alchemist.

What was it that allowed them this aggression? Was it the fact that they had better positioning when engaging? It could be, but I think props has to go to Fly’s drafting. He knew his team’s capabilities and how to execute them precisely, which was really impressive to watch, especially since the team has undergone massive renovations in the recent months.

“The Green Dream”, which started as a faint whisper at the back of the crowd, grew louder and louder as OG progressed through the ranks of lower bracket, beating Fnatic, Mineski, Virtus.pro, CDEC Gaming, EHOME.cn and Evil Geniuses before reaching the grand finals of the Frankfurt Major. The OG versus EG lower bracket final was one that sparked a lot of interest and it was a game in which OG should have stood no chance. “They’ve done well so far, they should be proud” was the sentiment resounding across the tournament.

What happened in game one was exactly as so many expected. EG demolished them. EG pummelled them so far into the ground, the Hulk would have had trouble getting them out. They struggled against the extreme aggressiveness from EG, the same thing Alliance and most other teams had lacked throughout the tournament.

Game two and three were butt-clenching to say the least. MoonMeander played a stellar Earthshaker in game two to put OG level at one game apiece and Miracle (living up to his nickname) playing the best Alchemist you will see in a long while to take Arteezy’s Anti-Mage down and help win OG the game. They took the series 2-1 and moved on to meet Team Secret in the grand finals. The OG fans were breathless, and now it was soon to start all over again.

Team Secret. “The ultimate boss”, as MoonMeander put it. The downfall of OG was sure to happen now, right? The end was finally to come, Secret are too strong! If there was ever a time a Dota team was to prove everyone wrong, it would be now. Team OG had just finished a crunch match and were a team on fire. In the first two games Secret were outdrafted and outplayed. Again the aggression from OG was too much to handle.

One of the problems I think Secret had was that they played their safe heroes. They played heroes that included Dazzle, Bane and Anti-Mage – all very defensive heroes that require a lot of attention. OG, however, never gave Secret that attention. Instead they pushed forward and made Secret defend with their early, weak cores resulting in a steam train that couldn’t be stopped. Secret pulled back in the third game but were ultimately outplayed in game four, and OG lifted the trophy. The dream that OG would get to the final four was made a reality when Fly held the trophy up for his team and for their fans.

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